LONDON: Zimbabwe has signed a secret deal to supply Iran with the raw materials needed to develop a nuclear weapon, in breach of international sanctions, The Times reported yesterday.
“I have seen (a memorandum of understanding) to export uranium to the Iranians,” Zimbabwean Deputy Mining Minister Gift Chimanikire told the British newspaper. The US and the European Union have imposed crippling sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for peaceful energy uses but which they fear is intended to build a bomb.
Zimbabwe is also subject to international sanctions over its human rights record and conduct of elections. President Robert Mugabe, who won another five-year term in disputed polls last month, has publicly backed Iran’s nuclear drive.
During a visit by Iran’s then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Harare in April 2010, Mugabe said his guest should be assured of “Zimbabwe’s continuous support of Iran’s just cause on the nuclear issue”. AFP
